"I can see the direction the club is going in."

So said West Ham's newest capture to signal the start of the traditional transfer window panic.

The player in question, Nigel Quashie, swapped life at West Brom in fifth place in the Championship for the Hammers, who currently have to bridge a five-point gap to avoid joining them.

West Ham boss Alan Curbishley denied he is desperately signing anyone that moves, saying he was actually attracted by the midfielder's "experience".

Perhaps that should have read "experience at battling the drop". And not winning.

Short of arriving in the east end swathed in a black cloak and carrying a scythe, Quashie could not bring more bad luck.

He has been relegated from the Premiership FOUR times with FOUR different clubs - QPR and Nottingham Forest earlier in his career, then Southampton and the Baggies in the previous two seasons.

"Throughout my career I've faced certain challenges," he trumpeted, "and met them all in the same way."

Like finishing in the bottom three, then But the transfer did get me wondering if Quashie was the most doomed player in domestic football. He's not. Not yet, anyway.

The Scottish international is currently joint leader for dropping out of the top flight. It is an honour he shares with Carlton Palmer, who went down with West Brom again in 1986, Sheffield Wednesday four years later and then from the Premiership with Ron Atkinson's Nottingham Forest in 1999 and Coventry two seasons on.

One more relegation would also equal the five throughout the entire league achieved by one-time Notts County defender Simeon Hodson. Don't you just love Google!

Hodson didn't waste any time, either, and managed to drop a division three times before reaching his 21st birthday. He would have made it four but baled out at Newport in the nick of time, two months ahead of their demotion into non-league in the late 1980s.

Hodson went down again in 1991 as West Brom slipped into the third tier for the first time in their history (what is it about the Baggies?) and rounded it off two seasons later by "helping" Mansfield from division three to four.

At which point he left the professional game for non-league - and no doubt to much relief from potential lower-division employers.

But no story on relegation would be complete without an appreciative nod in the direction of Neil Redfearn.

Still going strong for Avenue, where things are heading in the right direction for a change, Redfearn has been there, done that and seen everything in a career spanning over 1,000 matches.

When you've been going that long, it's inevitable there will have been as many lows as highs - and Redfearn is well familiar with the trapdoor.

Like Hodson, he has gone down five times as a player. Relegated twice from the Premiership with Barnsley and Charlton - but not City - Redfearn has also dropped from every other level with Bolton, Lincoln and Halifax.

And he has also been relegated as a manager with cash-strapped Scarborough from the Conference last season.

Even Quashie cannot match that one - but, at 28, the time is definitely on his side.

If I was a Hammers fan, I wouldn't be making too many plans with Nigel.